If the educational agenda No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is to be successful, teachers, parents and children from all cultural backgrounds have to be involved in the implementation process. This idea of NCLB Act clearly identified with the purpose of this study, which was focused on the evaluation of the parenting practices of Nigerian immigrant parenting practices in preparing their children for college. Five basic parenting theoretical approaches were employed by the researcher to gather, collect and analyze the data. The researcher interviewed and observed the environment of sixteen Nigerian immigrant parents on how they prepare their children for college. One school administrator and one school teacher were interviewed to evaluate their own perception of how Nigerian immigrant parents prepare their children for college. The major results of the findings were proactive parenting strategies. These included Cultural Orientation; Immigrant Experience; Surviving in the United States; Strong Parental Background; Early Childhood Education; Early Emphasis on Education; Close Interest in Children; Regular Supervision of Children; Preservation of Indigenous Culture; Supportive Family Collaboration; Strong Involvement in School Activities; Involvement in Community Organizations; Comparing of the Cultural Values in the United States and Nigeria; and Early Emphasis on Education. The study provided specific recommendations to assist teachers and school administrators in providing support to Nigerian immigrant parents as they prepare their children for college. Suggestions for additional research were provided. The concluding statement hinged on the idea that there are several factors that Nigerian immigrant parents consider beyond the conventional levels in preparing their children for college. Ultimately, proactive parenting is an innovative strategy that demonstrated that all children benefited maximally from the motivation of parents, expertise of teachers and the resources in the environment.

Since the late 1800s, testing has been a part of education. Supporters claim testing encourages objectivity in assessments of learning. Critics argue testing creates bias, restricted teaching methodology, and restricted curriculum. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires school accountability that has increased the push for standardized testing. High school students present a unique challenge for administrators on the low-risk California Standards Tests (CSTs). The CSTs in mathematics are complex in reference to student composition, range of courses tested, and sequence of previous math courses taken by the student. This complex nature of the CSTs in mathematics makes test preparation decisions difficult for the site administrator. Schools have developed test preparation practices in the hopes of improving student performance on these standardized tests. Some of these practices require a great deal of time, energy, and money to create and execute. The administrator must use these precious resources judiciously. Therefore, there is a need for further investigation of the criteria used by site administrators for selection of test preparation practices for CSTs in mathematics. Using qualitative analysis, this study researched the criteria used by the high school site administrators to govern their decision of which test preparation practices for CSTs in mathematics to establish at their school. This study included 18 administrators at 15 schools in the southern San Joaquin Valley in California that met their Academic Performance Index growth targets for 2006.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the leadership decision making process associated with pursuing innovative educational programs. The study investigated the experiences of leaders involved in pursuing Tech Prep Demonstration Project grants at two early-innovator California community colleges. A qualitative investigation was conducted utilizing descriptive case study methodologies. The researcher conducted focused interviews with individuals in leadership positions at the time the decision to pursue a Tech Prep Demonstration Project grant was made at these two community colleges. The study was guided by a data-analysis spiral. The data analysis spiral enabled the researcher to organize and examine large amounts of data in a systematic fashion. The study found that the decision-making process was facilitated by eight factors: (a) Environmental scanning by a designated person or by middle management; (b) preexisting intersegmental long term relationships with key individuals outside their institution; (c) prior knowledge of a related innovation; (d) personal and professional experience and frustration with a lack of educational options for K-12 students; (e) educational values that aligned with the innovation being pursued; (f) preexisting structures that allowed leaders to expand existing programming rather than to initiate new programming; (g) early reservations and challenges; and (h) post decision-making issues. These factors each played a large part in defining whether an environment in which innovations are considered exists in certain community colleges, as well as in K-12 schools. The community college leaders who took part in this decision making process had a great deal of professional experience to build upon. They used that experience to form relationships with K-12 leaders, who became their partners in educational reform. These partnerships were made possible because the colleges possessed sufficient organizational slack, and utilized that slack to pursue innovative programming. An earlier federal policy, the Tech Prep component of the 1990 Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, may have had limited success in meeting its own goals, but produced the strong intersegmental relationships that the TPDP was built upon. In addition, the study confirmed the decision-making stages described by Rogers (2003) and defined a sixth stage, the "resolution stage," in which decision makers step back and take time to reflect on the innovation itself and the process used to make the decision to implement or not implement the innovation, as well as correcting early assumptions that proved to be false. The resolution stage provided leaders with time to step back and reflect on their original goals and on the progress of the innovation in order to make course corrections as necessary.

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